2012 Academy Nicholl Fellowship Finalists Announced

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Ten finalists, consisting of nine individual screenwriters and one writing team, have been selected for the 2012 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition. Their scripts will now be read and judged by the Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, which may award as many as five of the prestigious $35,000 fellowships.

The finalists were selected from a record 7,197 scripts submitted for this year's competition. This is the first time an entry from South Africa has advanced to the finals.

The Nicholl competition is open to any individual who has not earned more than $5,000 writing for film or television or received a fellowship prize that includes a "first look" clause, an option, or any other quid pro quo involving the writer's work. Entry scripts must be feature length and the original work of a sole author or of exactly two collaborative authors. The scripts must have been written originally in English. Adaptations and translated scripts are not eligible.

The recipients of the 2012 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting will be announced later this month. The fellows will be honored on Thursday, November 8, at a ceremony at the Beverly Wilshire.

Fellowships are awarded with the understanding that the recipients will each complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year. The Academy acquires no rights to the works of Nicholl fellows and does not involve itself commercially in any way with their completed scripts.

Since the program's inception in 1985, 123 fellowships have been awarded. Among the recent achievements by Nicholl fellows: Destin Daniel Cretton wrote and directed "I Am Not a Hipster," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival; Raymond De Felitta's documentary "Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story" premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival; Andrew Marlowe created and executive produces the ABC series "Castle"; Rebecca Sonnenshine serves as a writer and story editor on the WB series "The Vampire Diaries"; Jeffrey Eugenides' third novel, The Marriage Plot, was a 2012 National Book Critics Circle award nominee; Jason Micallef wrote "Butter," premiering theatrically on October 5; and Jacob Aaron Estes wrote and directed "The Details," premiering theatrically on November 2.